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Vincent— what he thinks you should do about the council?”
    My heart skipped a few beats, which was pretty
dangerous considering its condition. “It’s positive? Vincent is my father?”
    “Well, according to this, Larry Berry is your
father.”
    Henry smacked him in the back of the head.
     
    *          *          *
     
    We decided, since the full moon was on the
twenty-fourth, the day before school started, that we would go to the
university a few days early for Henry’s peace of mind. Darwin stayed with us
since his parents were going to the U.K. on business. In an effort to save my
apartment from being trashed, I put him to work finding and putting together a
new office computer that would hopefully have a chance of withstanding my
magic. He came up with a Japanese laptop called a Toughbook, which he tore
apart and stuffed with anti-static padding and other stuff. It had a handle
built into the computer and apparently, I could drive a Hummer over it.
    But who the hell drives over their laptop?
    Meanwhile, Henry and I organized the office for two
people, did our taxes, and attempted to cover up any tracks Marcus might have
left behind at his house. I hadn’t expected the state we found the house in
when we went there on Wednesday. I thought he meant “blown up” as in it was
locked down and gassed, which was his normal home defense for intruders.
Instead, we found the house in splinters with two metal shelters left standing.
Both of them were open and the electronics inside were destroyed. Obviously,
Marcus smashed his computers when he didn’t plan on coming back.
    “Your friend is rather similar to Darwin, don’t you
think?” Henry asked, picking up what was left of a hard drive. “I detect a
familiar scent.”
    “Is it a person or a substance?”
    “A person, but I can’t place it.”
    We spent several hours at Marcus’s house and found
nothing that could point us in the right direction or clue us in on how to help
him. I tried calling him back at the number he used, but it was disconnected.
    “What do you want to do?”
    “Wait for him to call, I guess. If we try to track
him down, we might lead someone right to him.” That didn’t mean I was giving up
completely. If someone wired the place, it was best to pretend that we were
giving up.
    We returned to the office to find it destroyed. My
desk, the old computer, and the windows were all smashed. Two police officers
were inside. Instinctively, I reached out for Darwin’s mind. “ Where are you ?”
I asked.
    “ The internet was too slow, so I’m at the library .”
    “He’s okay,” I whispered to Henry.
    Once I explained to the police that it was my office,
I was asked all the basic questions. When they asked me what I did and I told
them I was a private investigator, they glanced at each other. Henry didn’t
make it easier by looking to me every time they tried to ask him a simple
question about his employment. I knew he was worried that the cops would find
out about his past thieving. Although he could easily incapacitate them, he was
trying to get away from that long.
    Realizing that this was a real issue for him, I tried
to hurry them up. “I’m not going to hunt this guy down or anything. You can
investigate and I won’t get in your way, or don’t and just let the insurance
take care of things.”
    “So you have no rivals in town or any angry clients?”
one of them asked, ignoring my dismissal.
    I figured the perpetrator was either Regina, who I
hadn’t heard from all winter, or the same person who was after Marcus.
Fortunately, my client files were all untouched in the secret storage room
behind the bathroom. Darwin had taken my new laptop to the library with him and
my desktop computer hadn’t worked in months, so nobody got anything from them.
Whoever did this just came to destroy crap.
    “No clue. It was probably some kids who got a few
rocks, saw some big, shiny windows, and decided to get into